Toward an Algebraic Theory of Systems

We propose the concept of a system algebra with a parallel composition operation and an interface connection operation, and formalize composition-order invariance, which postulates that the order of composing and connecting systems is irrelevant, a generalized form of associativity. Composition-order invariance explicitly captures a common property that is implicit in any context where one can draw a figure (hiding the drawing order) of several connected systems, which appears in many scientific contexts. This abstract algebra captures settings where one is interested in the behavior of a composed system in an environment and wants to abstract away anything internal not relevant for the behavior. This may include physical systems, electronic circuits, or interacting distributed systems. One specific such setting, of special interest in computer science, are functional system algebras, which capture, in the most general sense, any type of system that takes inputs and produces outputs depending on the inputs, and where the output of a system can be the input to another system. The behavior of such a system is uniquely determined by the function mapping inputs to outputs. We consider several instantiations of this very general concept. In particular, we show that Kahn networks form a functional system algebra and prove their composition-order invariance. Moreover, we define a functional system algebra of causal systems, characterized by the property that inputs can only influence future outputs, where an abstract partial order relation captures the notion of "later". This system algebra is also shown to be composition-order invariant and appropriate instantiations thereof allow to model and analyze systems that depend on time

Further properties of causal relationship: causal structure stability, new criteria for isocausality and counterexamples

Recently ({\em Class. Quant. Grav.} {\bf 20} 625-664) the concept of {\em causal mapping} between spacetimes --essentially equivalent in this context to the {\em chronological map} one in abstract chronological spaces--, and the related notion of {\em causal structure}, have been introduced as new tools to study causality in Lorentzian geometry. In the present paper, these tools are further developed in several directions such as: (i) causal mappings --and, thus, abstract chronological ones-- do not preserve two levels of the standard hierarchy of causality conditions (however, they preserve the remaining levels as shown in the above reference), (ii) even though global hyperbolicity is a stable property (in the set of all time-oriented Lorentzian metrics on a fixed manifold), the causal structure of a globally hyperbolic spacetime can be unstable against perturbations; in fact, we show that the causal structures of Minkowski and Einstein static spacetimes remain stable, whereas that of de Sitter becomes unstable, (iii) general criteria allow us to discriminate different causal structures in some general spacetimes (e.g. globally hyperbolic, stationary standard); in particular, there are infinitely many different globally hyperbolic causal structures (and thus, different conformal ones) on $\R^2$, (iv) plane waves with the same number of positive eigenvalues in the frequency matrix share the same causal structure and, thus, they have equal causal extensions and causal boundaries.Comment: 33 pages, 9 figures, final version (the paper title has been changed). To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit

On Lorentzian causality with continuous metrics

We present a systematic study of causality theory on Lorentzian manifolds with continuous metrics. Examples are given which show that some standard facts in smooth Lorentzian geometry, such as light-cones being hypersurfaces, are wrong when metrics which are merely continuous are considered. We show that existence of time functions remains true on domains of dependence with continuous metrics, and that $C^{0,1}$ differentiability of the metric suffices for many key results of the smooth causality theory.Comment: Minor changes. Version to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit

No Simple Dual to the Causal Holographic Information?

In AdS/CFT, the fine grained entropy of a boundary region is dual to the area of an extremal surface X in the bulk. It has been proposed that the area of a certain 'causal surface' C - i.e. the 'causal holographic information' (CHI) - corresponds to some coarse-grained entropy in the boundary theory. We construct two kinds of counterexamples that rule out various possible duals, using (1) vacuum rigidity and (2) thermal quenches. This includes the 'one-point entropy' proposed by Kelly and Wall, and a large class of related procedures. Also, any coarse-graining that fixes the geometry of the bulk 'causal wedge' bounded by C, fails to reproduce CHI. This is in sharp contrast to the holographic entanglement entropy, where the area of the extremal surface X measures the same information that is found in the 'entanglement wedge' bounded by X.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure

Geometry of Schroedinger Space-Times II: Particle and Field Probes of the Causal Structure

We continue our study of the global properties of the z=2 Schroedinger space-time. In particular, we provide a codimension 2 isometric embedding which naturally gives rise to the previously introduced global coordinates. Furthermore, we study the causal structure by probing the space-time with point particles as well as with scalar fields. We show that, even though there is no global time function in the technical sense (Schroedinger space-time being non-distinguishing), the time coordinate of the global Schroedinger coordinate system is, in a precise way, the closest one can get to having such a time function. In spite of this and the corresponding strongly Galilean and almost pathological causal structure of this space-time, it is nevertheless possible to define a Hilbert space of normalisable scalar modes with a well-defined time-evolution. We also discuss how the Galilean causal structure is reflected and encoded in the scalar Wightman functions and the bulk-to-bulk propagator.Comment: 32 page

A joint time-invariant filtering approach to the linear Gaussian relay problem

In this paper, the linear Gaussian relay problem is considered. Under the linear time-invariant (LTI) model the problem is formulated in the frequency domain based on the Toeplitz distribution theorem. Under the further assumption of realizable input spectra, the LTI Gaussian relay problem is converted to a joint design problem of source and relay filters under two power constraints, one at the source and the other at the relay, and a practical solution to this problem is proposed based on the projected subgradient method. Numerical results show that the proposed method yields a noticeable gain over the instantaneous amplify-and-forward (AF) scheme in inter-symbol interference (ISI) channels. Also, the optimality of the AF scheme within the class of one-tap relay filters is established in flat-fading channels.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figure